6 — Wednesday, March 13, 1991 - North Shore News

VIEWPOINT |

INSIGHTS Sc suRETOiURNOOD Will realism

THE LIGHTS BILL...

Losing democracy

HERE WERE four losers in Satur- day’s byelection in North Yan-

T couver District. And one of them

was local democracy.

Almost $0 per cent of the residents in the North Shore’s fastest growing com- munity decided the event wasn’t worth their time: only 12.4 per cent of the district’s eligible voters bothered to cast ballots in the byelection.

It’s amazing anyone was elected at all. Former district alderman Joan Gadsby was the eventual winner, but she was not elected by the majority of district residents. She was elected by a majority of a minority — those who actualiy voted, 6,789 people out of a population of just over 73,000.

On the referendum to dedicate the Lynn Canyon Park area as parkland, there was overwhelming (90 per cent) approval of

dedication. But again, it was only an overwhelming number of those who voted. Had an enterprising development company made a concerted effort and rallied for a no vote on the referendum, the Lynn Canyon Park dedication issue would have been lost.

It would have been a fitting outcome; it would have proved the extreme vulnerabil- ity of a municipal democratic system when it is beset with apaihy.

What is needed to get local residents out to voie in local elections is something more drastic than mere campaigning: a system in which aldermen and mayors are appointed by the reigning provincial party if less than a certain percentage of area residents vote in a given municipal election.

Surely a turnout of less than 15 per cent is ample evidence that residents in a com- munity do not care in the feast who repre- sents them.

LETTER OF THE DAY Free sexual expression is OK

Dear Editor:

free and consensual expression of

transmitted diseases. And only

There is a very dangerous idea in the middle of this kerfuffle about condom machines in the high schools, this notion, pro- moted by the fundamentalist Christian group Focus on the Family, that there is something bad or wrong with free sexual ex- pression and experimentation.

I strongly disagree with this an- ti-sex idea. There is nothing wrong with sexua! choice and with the

Publisher ...... . Peter Speck Managing Editor. Timothy Renshaw Associate Editor... Noel Wright Advertising Director _ Linda Stewart Comptroliiler......... . Doug Foot

North Shore News, founded in 1969 as an ‘dependent suburban newspaper and qualified under Schedule 111, Paragraph {1 of the Excise Tax Act, ts published each Wednesday, Friday and Sunday by North Shore Free Press Lid and distributed to every door on the Narth Snore. Second Class Mail Registration Number 3885 Subscriptions North and Wes! Vancouver, $25 per year. Maiting rales avaiable on request Submissions are welcome but we cannot accept fesponsibiitty for unsolicited maternal including manuscnpts and pictures which should be accompamed by a stamped, addressea envelope

desire.

Teenagers who are invoived in determining who and what they are in all other areas of life must, and do, explore what it is that they desire.

lt is only those who refuse sex- ual choice and freedom (which must include the choices of

abstinence and monogamy) who are pleased by the prospect of teenaged pregnancies and sexually

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those sentiments, plus a large dose of denial of the sexual realities of teenaged fife, could lead to this fervent opposition to the condom machines.

I strongly favor pro-sex sexual education and also this Jatest ini- tiative to protect our children from disease and unwanted pregnancy.

Samuel Wagar North Vancouver

SDA OIVISION

yet prevail in the longhouse?

“WE SHOULD have killed you all,’’ Indian leader Bill Wilson says, referring to the early white settlers whom B.C.’s native peoples initially welcomed.

Last week’s B.C. Supreme Court verdict dismissing a huge 57,000 sq.km. native land claim in northwest B.C. may only reinforce Wilson’s bitter logic.

Chief Justice Allan McEachern ruled that ‘‘the aboriginal rights of the natives were lawfully extin- guished by the Crown in the colo- nial period.”

Nothing very new about that. Norman Mullins, Q.C., a top legal expert on Indi-n issues, has pointed out that it wes the basic concept ‘‘accepted and applied”’ in all former British colonies — among them the U.S., Canada, Australia, New Zealand and South Africa.

The principle, he says, was that **so-called aboriginal title is extin- guished by conquest or by the ex- ercise of governmental authority or the enactment of legislation.’’

In other words, might was right.

If, as Wilson suggested, the In- dians had resisted by fighting and killing white settlers, they’d doubtless have been eventually defeated. But they might then at least have benefitted from a for- mal peace treaty clearly defining some of their other claimed rights.

The Brits had a better record than most colonizing nations for respecting challengers beaten on the battlefield.

As it was, the natives simply stood by and did nothing, while the white man took ownership of B.C. But history’s clock can’t be turned back. A century and a half later none of this makes the white B.C. citizens of 1991 ‘‘guilty.”’

Meanwhile, it’s important to remember that the B.C. judgment denies only aboriginal TITLE. It simply confirms that all land is ultimately owned by the Crown and cannot be owned by anyone else. It does not, in itself, affect individual rights to the USE of land.

(You do not actually OWN your iiome property, even when fully paid for. All you’ve bought is the right to USE it as long as you wish — unless government extradites it and compensates you.)

Outraged Indians, now prepar- ing an appeal to the Supreme Court of Canada, are meanwhile threatening ‘*Saddam-style tac- tics’? — roadblocks and violent Oka-type confrontations — in their fight against the B.C. court verdict.

But the issue, as the Chief Justice noted, is political and social rather than legal: a deep

CULTURAL difference between

BILL WILSON... have killed you all.”

“we should

Noel Wright

HITHER AND YON

white and native concepts of land ownership — the latter insisting that land ‘‘belongs,’’ wholly and for all time, to its traditional in- habitants.

It would be tragic if the fight over this one point destroyed the solid fund of white support for other, far more vital native claims to a better life.

Doubly so because the natives appear unlikely to win. No court to date has held that Indians can unconditionally OWN land that belongs to Canada.

Will realism yet prevail in the longhouse?

SHORT TAKES: Congrats to Joan Gadsby, former 10-year alderman on North Van District council, who rejoins it after hand- ily winning Saturday’s aldermanic byelection ... More of the same to North Van’s Evergreen Kiwanian Allen Fitch, elected 1991-1992 Lieutenant-Governor of the Kiwanis Pacific Northwest District — he succeeds West Van’s Ralph Wickberg in October ... One more time again to North Van’s Dale Gross who'll honeymoon with his soon-to-be bride Cindy Hayes on a Polynesian cruise — his second prize in Sunday’s Great Capilano River Duck Race ... West Van Community Pops Band is seeking all-ievel instrument players ~— call John Bergeron, 984-0325 ... And happy birthday today, March 13, to North Van’s Helen Preston.

WRIGHT OR WRONG: To live a worthwhile life, decide early on what you want written on your tombstone.

ALLEN FITCH... top honor for North Van Kiwanian.